Conferences are very important for business. The following conferences are distinguished by their purpose and style:
- highly specialized and large-scale;
- international and national;
- business and educational;
- anniversary and memorial conferences.
How to organize an event? The success of any event (not only a conference) depends on two factors: the degree of its preparation and the atmosphere of its holding. That is why the first thing you should start with is planning. You need to determine the form of the event, the topic, the range of issues to be discussed, the venue, potential partners and participants. You should also think about the financial side of the issue, including the need and feasibility of introducing an organizational fee. Don’t forget to discuss this issue with your organization’s accounting department so that the estimated financial costs can be allocated to specific cost items.
TOPIC. Before organizing a conference, you must clearly understand the purpose of the event. When you decide on the goal, it will most likely lead you to a particular topic. It is important that the topic is as clear as possible not only for you as the organizer, but also for all possible participants. Looking ahead, we can say that this point also includes the topics and plans of the speakers. It doesn’t matter if it’s an open conference or an invitation-only event – you need to be aware of the topics of the participants’ presentations. In addition, the topics should correspond to the general focus of the conference. Therefore, it will not be superfluous to clarify with all speakers the topics of their speeches and short abstracts of their speech.
DATE. It would seem that everything is very clear here – you need to follow the calendar of events and choose the most free day so that your event is attended by as many people as possible. But, quite often, this simple rule goes unnoticed. Keep a close eye on what other events are expected during the period of your forum. If you realize that the month is full of events of various orientations and scales, it may be better to postpone your event a little.
NEED TO KNOW: When choosing the day of the event, it is better to avoid the date of your competitor’s conference. You have the same target audience, and therefore you may face the fact that, having spent money on the organization, you will not get the desired result. You should also avoid dates of official and religious holidays, important social events. When organizing a conference, you also need to take into account the holiday season and vacations. It is also better not to hold a conference on Monday, because people have not yet entered the working rhythm after the weekend and are unlikely to want to attend your event. It is better to give preference to Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Delegate DUTIES. You don’t need to try to take everything into your own hands and handle all the responsibilities yourself. The ideal option in this case is to properly delegate responsibilities to professionals. Let a specialized company not only book conference rooms for you, but also organize catering, arrange for an interpreter if necessary, meet your guests and arrange their accommodation. Thus, you free yourself up for more important tasks – communication with speakers, etc. During the conference itself, distribute who among your employees will be responsible for a particular area of the event – preparing speakers, seating guests, meeting participants, etc. Speaking of the venue. It is important to understand where to hold the conference. It should be a spacious room that is easy to get to from anywhere in the city.
MODERATOR. Do not skimp on moderators, order the services of a real professional, because the atmosphere of the event and compliance with the regulations will largely depend on his skills. Firstly, the moderator should be able to fill in the pauses between speeches and in between reports. Secondly, speakers often get carried away, and instead of a 20-minute speech, they can talk much longer, which in turn will slow down the entire conference. The moderator must clearly follow the rules and be able to tolerantly remind the speaker that his or her time is running out. Thirdly, the moderator must be able to keep the attention of the audience and, perhaps, even help the speaker during his or her speech, ask leading questions, etc. As you can see, the moderator plays a very important role in the conference, and depending on his or her professional qualities, he or she can either pull the event through or sink it completely.
FINAL CHECK. The day before the event, it’s a good idea to check if you are fully prepared for it. Make sure that you have all the handouts ready, that all the speakers have confirmed their presence and know how to get to the venue. Check that all your employees know who is responsible for which area of the event, whether you have the presentations in hand… Such a final check cannot be superfluous when organizing any event format, not only conferences, but also smaller events, because the overall impression of the entire event will depend on how well everything goes. We hope that our advice will help you organize your conference and save you from possible problems.